A sci-fi semi-classic from the Sixties by a pioneer of the postwar British genre. William F Temple was never as famous as Arthur C Clarke or as idiosyncratic as Brian Aldiss, but he knew them both and had his own literary characteristics. I have already reviewed The Four-Sided Triangle, Battle on Venus and (the best title) Fleshpots of Sansato on this blog. Shoot at the Moon is every bit as good. As an extra bonus it took me back to the mid-Sixites when the debate among schoolboys was Is it even possible to land on the moon?
Well obviously it was, and Temple, being of a scientific bent, never seems to have doubted it. He follows Clarke in his advocacy of atomic engines being the best and least damaging way to do it, and they may well have been right. He then works in Charles Eric Maine's debut trick of murder in space. Indeed, he doubles down on the device with two murders. But the Endeavour only has a crew of five to begin with: the proto Musk, Colonel Marley, who has funded the expedition, his schizophrenic daughter Lou, who happens to be a leading scientist, her ex-husband Thompson, the celebrated Johan, Pettigue, who has a reputation of being the only survivor of several expeditions, and our narrator, the jobbing space pilot Franz Brunel. Well, it can't be him, we assume - that would be taking the unreliable narrator too far. And it can't really be either of the two victims, certainly not the first. Temple hints that there are other crews elsewhere on the Moon, so it may be them, especially since the Endeavour is on a literal gold hunt on a forbidden patch of the Dark Side.
I'm not going to reveal the killer. Just to say, it's a good one when it comes and provides an excellent chase to finish with. The characters all have their strengths and weaknesses, their motives and guilty secrets. Shoot at the Moon is Temple on top form. If retro British sci-fi is your thing, you'll love it.
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